[A true story]
A known drug user was talking to a girl one day and told he her about a recent dream. As minor as it may seem, this casual encounter snowballed until it ended up with an innocent Eagle Scout getting being put in jail for 40 years. All with absolutely no physical proof.

Ryan Ferguson will be spending 40 years of his life in jail as a result of a former friend’s dream, an overly eager prosecuting attorney with political motives, a local police department desperate to solve the biggest unsolved crime in history of their department, and a group of 12 of your peers that wanted to do their part to “solve the unsolved mystery.”

Here are the actual facts taken from the trial:

• The Police collected DNA from blood found at the scene. However, the DNA was not Ryan’s (the Eagle Scout that was convicted for 40 years). It was not even Chuck’s (the kid who had the dreams that “confessed”). This ruled them out as possible suspects.
• The Police collected several fingerprints found at the scene. The fingerprints did not match Ryan or Chuck, and ruled them out as suspects.
• Hairs were found in the clenched hand of the victim. Once again, the hairs did not match Chuck or Ryan, and was another thing that completely ruled them out as suspects.
• During Chuck’s “confession” he said they drove in Ryan’s car after the murder. The forensic team tested the car and said that if the Chuck’s hallucinations were true, a luminol test would have found traces of blood. Since the crime was so violent and bloody, luminol would have found blood even after years. They concluded that the person that committed the crime never got in Ryan’s car.

Every piece of physical evidence found completely ruled out both kids. However, there were two witnesses of the scene. They gave police a description of person they saw at the scene.

• The witness gave a composite artist descriptions of the suspect, and said that he had blond hair, was about 6 feet, weighed 200 pound and was in his twenties. Then in court, the witness pointed out Ryan, who at the time of the crime, had black hair, was 5 feet 5 inches, 145 pounds and was 17.

Not only did all of the physical evidence prove their innocence, but the only testimony that linked the kids to the crime was from the hallucinating kid, Chuck, who said he was not sure if it actually happened or if it was just a dream. During the interrogation of Chuck Erickson, he told police how the murder was committed. He was wrong. The police interrogator then tried to feed him the correct response. When Chuck was told how it was actually done, Chuck told them that was not how it happened, realized there was no way he was part of any crime that happened like that and said “maybe I don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

• Even after he admitted he wasn’t sure of the facts and saying his hallucinations may have been just a dream, his initial taped “confession” was the only thing that led to the conviction of Ryan Ferguson.

Reading this may not seem believable to you. Please, scour the internet to find out as many facts as you can and you too will be unsettled as to how an injustice like this can occur in our country.

Ryan and his family are currently going through the appeals process.

What can you do?

1. Research the story so you know the facts.
2. Make yourself heard in the forum at the local newspaper.
3. Contact the Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane and let him know you that feel this is an injustice (he does not make his email freely available) and would like to see more evidence.
4. Support all aspects of the legal system to ensure justice. Support forensics, prosecutors and public defenders.
5. Don’t stand for mass manipulation of the judicial system from people with personal motives.

For a slightly more detailed description of these events, you can read it here, you can also find more info at these sites.

All statements in the story are believed to be true by the writer. If you are involved in this case and see information that is not accurate, please contact the owner of this site.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 11:02 am and is filed under Justice/Political. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.